Europe

I finally left two weeks ago on March 30, but then had to turn around after only a few minutes because the clutch lever constantly got stuck. It also turned out that the spare tire I carried was a little too close to the exhaust and the chain guard needed some fixing too.
So it was a late start, with me on the Autobahn by 3 o'clock and the goal to reach Lille in Northern France where I would spent the night at my friend Vincent's. Because I hadn't used the GPS before on the bike, I got lost a few times in the maze that is the Dutch highway system. In Utrecht my self-made chain guard came off, I fixed it with zip-ties in the rain and was ready to go home again.
When I finally arrived in Lille at 1.30h Vincent offered baguette and a warm bed and I gladly accepted.

I left Lille (rain, of course), went by some Yamaha dealers who unfortunately did not have the the chain guard I needed. So I soldiered on, wearing almost all the clothes I had with me, around 8 layers, and made my way south.
The Périphérique in Paris was something else; cars were bumper to bumper but motorcycles all went in between the lanes. I joined a group of bikes, including a Goldwing, and had an exhilarating ride that saved me a lot of time too.

The goal was to make Bordeaux and find a hotel and I was making good progress after having had a late start. It was already dark and I had just passed a toll station when I noticed that my GPS suddenly seemed brighter than usual. I quickly realized that my front light had stopped working and stopped by the side of the highway to try and fix the problem. All other lights were working on the bike and when I poked around the connections the light worked just for a moment before I held a loose wire in my hand. I could not immediately work out where it was supposed to go and decided to take the next exit, which turned out to be a highway service and police station. Because it was night there was only one lone police woman who was not allowed to let me in, but gave me a coffee through the bars in front of the window. I asked whether I could just wait for daylight, but of course even then, officially, you have to have a light. So she called a tow truck and now this whole thing was going to get expensive. The friendly mechanic Pascal took me to his garage, quickly fixed the broken wire for free and after a swipe of my Visa I was on my illuminated way.

Unfortunately the Etap Hotel in close-by Tours was already closed and I decided to not spend any more money that night and camp wild. I looked for a spot on the GPS that looked sufficiently remote, went there, found a spot that was OK, hastily put up the tent and froze my ass off in all my clothes plus the sleeping bag - in the morning there was ice on the tent.

At least I had gotten an early start and that day I went from Tours in France over 1000 kms to Madrid, where I had a place to sleep at my friend Santi's. All day was spent riding, asses were frozen off again (Spain is very cold), but the ride through Spain was fun. Especially in Basq Country around San Sebastian the road looked like in a video game: up and down; left and right and all the while amazing scenery. Oh, I embarrassingly ran out of gas on a french highway, even though my tank fits 40 liters. After the previous day's experience I decided to definitely try and fix this myself, left the bike on the highway, climbed up the embankment and asked for gas at the houses nearby. But, of course, they didn't have any - not outside of their cars anyway Just as I was about to call a taxi a service truck from the highway company came by and took me first to the next shopping center to buy a fuel canister, then a gas station and back to my bike again. All for free! French toll motorways FTW! From then on I gladly paid my "péage''.

I arrived late at night right in the center of Madrid, where Santi lives. After having spent all day on highways and rural gas stations, I felt out of place.

Arriving at somebody's home is extremely nice when you're traveling like this, there is a bed, a shower, internet, and a friend to talk to who also knows his way around town.
The next day was spent recuperating after three stressful days. We tried to find a Yamaha dealer but since it was Easter Friday, something the old atheist Julian had completely forgotten, no chain guard was to be had. I created a temporary fix out of a piece of plastic and some liquid metal glue that would hold up surprisingly well.

The next day, the fith of this trip, I left Madrid for Cadiz in Southern Spain, where I spent the night on a camping ground, too tired/lazy to look for spot to wild camp. The day after I would ride to Tarifa to take the ferry to Tangier, Morocco.